Adjectives and Adverbs. Lecture 9

Transcription

1 Adjectives and Adverbs Lecture 9

2 Identifying adjectives an attribute of a noun, e.g. cold weather, large windows, violent storms, etc. -able/ible; -al; -ful, etc., e.g. achievable/ illegible; functional; beautiful; terrific; etc. no typical adjectival suffix: bad, bright, clever, etc.

3 Types of adjectives A. Qualitative adjectives i. Evaluative (subjective: pretty, charming, horrible, etc.); ii. Descriptive (objective: big, round, young, tired, afraid, etc.); B. Colour adjectives (blue, red, white); C. Participles (frightened, frightening); D. Emphasizing adjectives (complete, utter, bloody); E. Limiters (certain, chief, entire); F. Adjectives denoting style/origin/material (Edwardian/ Japanese/ wooden);

4 Gradability (adjectives and adverbs) suffixation: -er (comparative degree) and -est (superlative degree) modification: more (comparative degree) and most (superlative degree). Suffixes are used with: Monosyllabic adj./adv.: hot hotter hottest, fast faster fastest, soon sooner soonest; Disyllabic adj. ending in -y/ -le/ -er : happy, noble, clever; also narrow, shallow; A disyllabic adverb - early earlier earliest.

5 All other gradable adjectives and adverbs are marked for comparison by modification with more and most. Adjectives with irregular comparative and superlative forms: good better best, bad worse worst, ill worse worst. Adverbs with irregular comparative and superlative forms: well better best, ill worse worst, little less least, far farther/ further farthest/ furthest.

6 Predicative position the Head of an adjective phrase which functions as a subject predicative - The room is spacious. vs. the spacious room only occur in predicative position: afraid, akin, alike, ashamed, asleep, awake, aware, etc.

7 Attributive position Most adjectives can occur as modifiers. The adjectives which can only occur in attributive position are non-gradable. denominal adjectives are typically nongradable: medical, nuclear, etc., also emphasizing adjectives, e.g. utter, total, etc. and limiters, e.g. main, entire, certain, etc.

8 Postmodifying adjectives Postmodifying adjectives and adjective phrases can be regarded as derived from postmodifying clauses: something sufficient something that is/was sufficient an actress famous in the 1990s an actress who was famous in the 1990s

9 Adjectives with nominal function Completely substantivized adjectives have all the grammatical features of nouns: The car is convertible. He is driving a convertible. He is a brave warrior. The painting shows two Indian braves. Partially substantivized adjectives are typically with generic reference and combine with plural verb forms: The unemployed were taken out of the city. The rich are different from you and me.

10 Order of premodifying elements 1. Limiters (certain, same, main, entire); 2. Emphasizing adjectives (complete, utter, bloody); 3. Qualitative adjectives: Evaluative (excellent, pretty, great, poor, splendid, etc.); Descriptive: size (little, big, etc.), shape (round, square, etc.), age (young, old, etc.); 1. Colour adjectives/ participles (white, red, writing, broken, etc.); 2. Origin/style/material (Swiss chocolate, a Victorian house, a wooden chair) 3. Classifying modifiers: a. Classifying (denominal) adjectives (cardiac arrest, urban dialect, herbaceous border, runic inscription, etc.); b. Uninflected nouns (bronze statue, atom bomb, city dweller, sales department, etc.); c. Classifying genitives (ploughman s lunch, a master s degree, goat s cheese, etc.)

11 speaker s opinion noun inherent characteristics those two splendid old wooden tables

12 Adverbs Mary sings beautifully. The cruise ship was incredibly huge. We arrived fairly quickly. the suffix ly: easy easily, dry dryly; adjectives ending in -ly no suffix -ly can be added: early, friendly; adverbs of no adjectival origin do not share morphological characteristics, e.g. again, always, often, sometimes, etc.

13 Adverbs with double forms The story just gets deeper and deeper. He works really hard. The windows were high in the wall. Let me get a little closer. I am deeply concerned by the lack of progress. He could hardly read. Reviewers speak very highly of them. Lizzie examined her closely.

14 Gradability John works hard. Mary works harder. I work hardest. recently, more recently, most recently; some adverbs are irregular: Adverb Comparative Superlative well better best badly worse worst little less least much more most

15 Types of adverbs Degree adverbs (e.g. very, quite, rather, unusually, enough, etc.); Focusing adverbs (even, only, just, especially, particularly, etc.); Negative and restrictive adverbs (never, hardly, scarcely, almost, nearly, etc.) Adverbial particles (e.g. up, down, in, out, under, over): He climbed up the hill. Circumstantial adverbs (here, now, therefore, thus, etc.)